The Irish Environmental History Network invites you to its 47th public meeting, featuring a lecture from very special guest Dr Christine Corton of the University of Cambridge.

This FREE event takes place on Monday the 1st of April from 6-8PM in the TRiSS Seminar Room, 6th floor of the Arts Building. All are welcome to attend.

'London Fog: The Biography'

Abstract: In popular imagination, London is a city of fog (the ‘big smoke’) and these fogs became one of the great urban spectacles of the industrial age as well as a globally notorious instance of air pollution. Frequently the fogs were so thick that people could not see their own feet. The story of the classic London fogs, thick yellow “pea-soupers,” from the industrial age of the nineteenth century to the clean air legislation of 1956 that ended them attracted the imagination of writers as varied as Charles Dickens, Henry James, Oscar Wilde, Robert L. Stevenson and others. Artists including Whistler, Monet and Yoshio Markino were fascinated by their visual effects. In this talk Christine L Corton describes these epic London fogs, their dangers and beauty, and their lasting impact on our culture and imagination.

Bio: Dr Christine L Corton worked for many years in publishing houses including Hamish Hamilton and Penguin. She has been a Senior Member of Wolfson College since 2010. Her book London Fog: The Biography, published in 2015 by Harvard University Press, was paperbacked in 2018 and was also published in Chinese. Her new book is a Cultural History of Divorce.

For more info contact breenri@tcd.ie